The Governor’s Veto and the State’s Looming Deficit
Governor McGraw slashes funding for two new normal schools, citing a constitutional mandate to keep the state's spending within its revenue.
The story, cleaned up
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Governor McGraw has signed the appropriation bill after striking out sundry items amounting in the aggregate to $178,610. The greater part of the reduction is made by striking out entirely the appropriation of $85,000 for the erection and maintenance of a normal school at Cheney and $35,000 for the erection and maintenance of a normal school at Whatcom. The governor bases his objection on the fact that the state has not the revenue in sight to pay for them. He says in his message: 'To approve of the appropriation bill as it stands would, therefore, to my mind clearly involve an unconstitutional deficit largely in excess of a just public demand.' The state has at the present time a bonded indebtedness of $300,000. This, added to the estimated deficit, will make a total indebtedness of $455,000.19, or $52,000.19 in excess of the constitutional limit.
“The wisest and most conservative judgment... lead me to the conclusion that the proper and legal course to be pursued is to bring the legislative appropriations as nearly as possible within the income of the state.”
This 1893 debate over state budget deficits and constitutional debt limits reflects the recurring tension between regional expansion (building schools) and the rigid fiscal constraints that have defined Washington's governance for over a century.
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